Word: Kaput

kaput

[ kah-poo t, -poot, kuh- ]

adjective Slang.

1. ruined; done for; demolished.

2. unable to operate or continue: The washing machine is suddenly kaput.

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               Chief Engineer Ken Fields pushed himself through the hallway, lit dimly with red lights. His body floated through the corridor, easily maneuvering through the space with minimal effort. There were a lot of things Ken knew, but there were two that were very important at that moment. One was that red lights were always bad. The second was that he should not be floating.

               He quickly arrived at his post, the engineering section of the ship. There he found Hank, his subordinate and the only other engineer aboard the ship. The large man was hovering, curled up in the fetal position and was sobbing quietly.

               “Hank? Hank! Pull yourself together, man.” Ken said.

               Hank slowly stopped crying and unfurled his hefty form. “Sorry, boss, it’s just…just…I think we’re going to die.”

               “Why? What happened?”

               “It’s the main power core.”

               “What? Did we run out? No, that can’t be. We should have plenty of energy left.”

               “Yeah, boss. Enough to get us from Betelgeuse to Alpha Centauri and back again. But that’s not the problem. The problem is everything else. The connectors are shot, the regulators have blown out. Even the modulator’s done fore. Hell, I’m pretty sure even the basic wiring’s useless now.”

               Ken floated over to the core and looked it over. Hank was right. Every single part save the core itself was well passed working order. The only reason the ship was not currently a bunch of space debris was because the energy simply had nowhere to go, so it just sat in its containment.

               “Well, have you tried replacing anything? Where are the backup parts?”

               “Those are the backup parts. Remember? We changed them out a week ago.”

               “Oh yeah. And the captain said he’d get them replaced, but didn’t. Even though we told him something like this would happen.” Ken said, grinding his teeth when he thought about their credit pinching “leader”.   

               Ken looked it over again. It he and Hank worked their butts off, they might be able to get another hour of power from the core. Hopefully before the emergency power failed and life support went dead. They might be able to get more out of it, but that was doubtful. There was only one thing he could do in this situation.

               He went over to the comms panel, thankful that it was still working and activated an all-ship announcement.

               “Hello everyone. This is Chief Engineer Kenneth Fields. I’m sure you’ve all noticed the lack of main power. This is because all parts that allow the ship to draw power from the core are either broken, worn out, or both. This is due entirely to Captain Bever skimping out on parts. He was informed that these parts are worn out and would fail. However, he chose to ignore this warning. As such, we are now stranded several light years away from the nearest port. I and Sub Engineer Hank Walters will be making every effort to get main power back online. However, nothing we do will make it permanent. I can promise one hour, and anything beyond that will be a miracle.

               “As much as it pains me to say, I advise all of you to…to go back to your quarters and make your Final Message. Good bye and prey to whatever god you believe in that we get picked up before everything breaks down.”

               “Boss?” Hank said when Ken ended the transmission. “I…I don’t want to die.”

               “I know. I know. Neither do I.”

               Faint sounds drifted down the hall. Shouting. Lots of shouting. The clanging of metal on metal, maybe a pulse shot. There was a mutiny going on. Not that it would do much good.

               “Hank, go back to your bunk and make your Final Message. I’ll get started on trying to jury rig this thing. When you finish, I’ll go and make mine.”

               “And after that?”

               “We get to work. We’ve got a miracle to make.”

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Using Star Trek logic, these people will be: 1) rescued at the last moment by a friendly ship; 2) Rescued by a very unfriendly ship who will either imprison or enslave them; or 3) somehow pull some technobabble out of their butts and somehow make it to a safe port.

Which one it is remains to be seen.